ITI at TCG: A Backstage Match

by Paul Foster

In December 1999, a new star began to shine in the theater firmament. ITI joined with TCG to make a supernova of opportunity for the theater community. The Theater Communications Group, an indispensable organization catering to the many needs of theater people in the USA, exchanged vows with the International Theater Institute, catering to worldwide theater.

ITI Director Martha Coigney says, "It's not exactly a marriage. It's a cohabitation." And, as Joan Channick, Deputy Director of TCG adds, "with no above-title billing." Thus, curtain up on ITI at TCG.

"We are the love child of the Cold War," Ms. Coigney explains. "ITI was founded in Prague in 1961 when UNESCO needed a vehicle for artists to communicate across the iron curtain. ITI-USA joined a year later. But this baby had no public funding from any government agency, so we make our money the old fashioned way. We fund-raise."

Director Martha Coigney runs a compact organization. You always talk to a human on the telephone. It's built for speed - most questions are answered right then without delay. A crisis on a road show in a country that has no discernible vowels in the language? No way to cut the red tape? ITI solved this writer's crisis when I desperately needed some friends in high places.

It was 1971, December, the winter of our discontent with Communism. Nothing was moving, not government relations, not friendly relations, not even the Danube moved. Frozen solid clear to Moscow. I had a two-woman play booked in Budapest. Everything was checked and rechecked and searched and microscoped if the little company of two actors, a director and a stage manager so much as changed a light cue. Then, for no discernible reason they were asked to pack and leave! Gyors! Now!

ITI swung into action. With a few phone calls (in a place where phones just didn't work, but the phone taps worked superbly), the show went on, completed its run, and even the reviews were glowing.

Although ITI is not big, most of its work is done through a superbly effective channel of individual contacts.

"Our purpose is to keep the international theater community in touch with itself," Ms Coigney explains. "ITI has a voluminous library of up-to-date information on theater festivals around the world, names, addresses, bio's, credits and specialties of theater artists and technicians in almost every country."

Ms. Coigney brings to the new digs her chief researcher, Louis Rochow, who is as adroit as James Bond's Q. If the information you want to know in the theater exists on this particular planet, L.R. will find it. The Nobel Committee probably checks with him when they want the lowdown before their showdown.

ITI will let you know who's looking for the skinny about a place in some place that's out of place, or just next door. ITI helps you to find it all, complete and tout de suite. This year it turned fifty and, faut de mieux, we're fortunate to have this fantastic, famous, feisty, indefatigable institute.

Although ITI-USA is now under the same roof as Theater Communications Group, the organizations remain separate entities.

The other half of the duet does the heavy lifting. TCG's Joan Channick explains: "The Theater Communications Group was founded in 1961 as a national service organization for not-for-profit theater in the United States. It has 345 not-for-profit member theaters, and l7,000 member subscribers."

Ben Cameron, TCG's Executive Director, and Joan Channick as Deputy Director work in four major areas:

l. Publications. TCG publishes a monthly magazine, American Theatre. Also, TCG publishes 15-16 books each year. With 700 titles now in print, the organization also acts as distributor for foreign theater books. The TCG conducts Art Search, an employment bulletin published twice each month. Containing approximately 900 listings, each issue lists staff promotions and work opportunities. Art Search also accepts paid advertisements from academic and professional organizations. Other TCG publications include: The TCG Publications Catalogue, Stage Writers Handbook, Stage Directors Handbook and Dramatists Source Book.

2. Grants. TCG conducts artistic grant programs which distribute over one million dollars annually. It distributes six National Endowment of the Arts grants of $25,000 each to writers, directors and designers. Also, it distributes the Alan Schneider Observerships of up to $2,000 each, the United States Information Agency International Grant Partnership Program, and a new offering, the Aetna-Jujamcyn grant of $l00,000 with $50,000 each to a theater and to a writer.

3. Management Programs. TCG conducts a fiscal survey which provides useful data for those in the same peer group to compare. They also conduct a salary survey for full- time theater positions, and short 60 Second Surveys on issues. The organization also presents ideas for theater programs, conducts periodic teleconferences, and hosts National Conferences every other year, along with regional forums several times each year.

4. Government Programs. According to Ms. Channick, an intellectual property attorney, "with Advocacy Arts Alliance in Washington, TCG provides legislation updates and location alerts. We also provide model letters to register opinions to lawmakers. The TCG Bulletins inform the theater community of legal developments that would affect them."

There are now two doors to one vast storehouse of information and service, national and worldwide: TCG and ITI. The strengths of the two organizations reinforce each other to provide the theater arts with unparalleled access to contacts and information.

Resources:

You can locate ITI on the web at http://www.ITI-USA.org. 355 Lexington Avenue, fourth floor ( near 40th Street), New York, NY 10017. Telephone 212 / 697 5230. Fax 2l2 / 254 6814.

Last September TCG went online at http://www.TCG.org. Sharing its quarters with ITI, it is also located at 355 Lexington Avenue, fourth floor, New York, NY 10017. Telephone 2l2 / 697 5230. Fax 2l2 / 983 4847.

Paul Foster's two-character play, The Recluse, was directed by Victor LiPari for its successful run in 1971 at the Embassy Theater in Budapest, Hungary.

For more on playwright-author Paul Foster and his life in the theater, contact the Paul Foster Theatrical Collection at the Alexander Library, Rutgers University. Fully catalogued, the collection (Call Number MC865) comprises 21 cubic feet of manuscripts and other theatrical papers. Direct email research enquiries to edskip@rci.rutgers.edu or write to Dr. Ron Becker, Head of Special Collections, The Alexander Library, Rutgers University, 69 College Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08903.

About the Author:

Paul Foster, co-founder of La Mama Theatre, is an award-winning author of 18 Broadway and Off-Broadway plays. His work has been seen in numerous television and film scripts and he has 14 books published in several languages. Winner of NEA, NEH, Rockefeller, Guggenheim, British Arts Council, Irish Universities Fellowships and Awards. The Paul Foster Theatrical Collection can be found at Rutgers University, Alexander Library, New Brunswick, NJ (see Resources, above for contact information).